Christmas Time is Here

John had to work Christmas week this year, so we decided I should make one final pilgrimage to Pittsburgh with the kids, so they could celebrate Christmas with my family. Next year, with 3 kids, traveling by myself is just out of the question and so is the cost of airfare, so we will most likely be celebrating in Texas. I realized while we were there that I have been quite spoiled. I have spent 28 straight Christmases with my family, the most of any of my siblings. We were just lucky that John went to grad school driving distance from my parents, so we could spend half of Christmas break in Utah with his family and the other half in Pittsburgh with mine. Those were the days.

One of my hopes in going home was that the kids would get to play in snow and we were not disappointed. We seriously got dumped on while we were there. I realized that while I like having a white Christmas, I would much rather just look at it then actually have to be in it or drive in it. The kids had a blast playing in the snow. Here is Netta all bundled up. Poor girl had to wear just jeans and a fleece since we obviously have no need for winter gear here. Don't worry though she had lots of layers underneath.

Here is my dad pulling her around the backyard. Trust me it's him.

When we first started getting ready to go outside, EZ refused to put on his gear on. In true EZ fashion he had to do things on his own time and once he decided he was ready to go outside he refused to come back in. He just stood outside playing in the driveway while my dad shoveled.

EZ's favorite indoor activity was playing with the massive collection of singing snowmen that my mom has amassed from Hallmark over the years. There are many more than are shown in the picture and EZ's favorite thing was to get them all going at once. I keep thinking we should be collecting them, but then on second thought our house is loud enough as is it.

Here is a pic of Netta and I getting ready for the annual Christmas Eve open house. My parents aren't from Pittsburgh and they started having this party when I was little for all those transplants who didn't have any family in town. We don't have a fancy Christmas dinner. Instead we have the left overs from the Christmas Eve party and I love it.

On Christmas morning whoever is handing out the gifts gets the wear the Santa hat. EZ was actually handing them out, but he refused to wear the hat so Netta took over that duty.

We flew home Christmas Day and got home in enough time to have another round of presents with John at our house. The kids were so good on the flights. Everyone around was amazed and so was I. It was truly a Christmas miracle. John cracks me up because when I called and he said he was setting out the gifts he said that he didn't like wrapping so he was putting the gifts in bags. I thought he meant gift bags, but no he just meant grocery bags. Luckily the kids are too young to care. They just want to play with the toys. They couldn't care less what they are wrapped in. Here is a pic of EZ enjoying the spoils. He is sitting in his new tent from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Steve and eating candy from his stocking, while watching the Grinch, which is Aunt Rachel got for him.

It was obviously a lot warmer here when we got back, but Netta loved the snow and her winter gear so much that she insisted on wearing it around the house. I have to hide it now, because whenever she finds it she wants to wear it and that is not a good thing after she has just taken a bath. Talk about bad hat head.

Getting Ready for Christmas

So it's been almost 2 weeks since I originally uploaded these pics to the blog and now I am finally getting around to writing about them. In my defense this holiday season has been insane. We traveled for Thanksgiving, then 2 weeks later our friends the Esplins were in town for a visit and then the day they left I flew with both kids by myself to Pittsburgh to celebrate Christmas with my family. Then I came home and a week later Netta and I flew to Utah for my sister Meghan's wedding and now a week from tomorrow the whole family flies to Pittsburgh for the reception. I get tired just thinking about it.

Anyway, on the the actual post. We didn't have much time between Thanksgiving in Utah and taking off for Pittsburgh, but we tried to do as much Christmas stuff as we could. I love gingerbread houses, but EZ isn't much help with those and I am not very artistic, so this year we opted for the easier gingerbread tree. EZ really got into helping and Netta really got into the icing. Here is EZ showing off the finished product.

The whole time EZ was decorating, Netta was sucking the icing right out of the tube. That's my girl.

Of course we decorated this fabulous tree that my roommate Sarah and I bought my junior year of college, about 7 years ago. It might not be the fanciest tree, but it is the perfect size for the kids. Just tall enough so I can put some fragile ornaments on top and the kids can't reach them.

We have discovered that Netta loves ornaments. Thank goodness we stocked up on shatter-proof ones last year. Here she is escaping with one. She basically dismantled the tree on a daily basis. For some reason her favorite thing was to fill her little shopping cart with ornaments and disperse them around the house.

We also had a Christmas party at Church with dinner, singing and Santa Clause. The kids got dressed in their Christmas best. Well the best Christmas stuff I could throw together. Of course Netta has the cuter outfit. Let's face it there are just way more cute clothes for girls than boys.

I was excited that Santa made an appearance at the party, but the kids weren't so much. EZ refused to even wait in line to see him and then Netta I think naively waited in line with us and then wigged out when she realized we were going to try to maker her sit on the lap of some strange man.

Thanksgiving Festivities

This year we went to Utah for Thanksgiving. In a rare occasion, all 10 of John's siblings were there, so it was quite the party. We love being around family and having so many cousins for EZ and Netta to play with. It's just so nice to have other people entertain your kids. HaHa. Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

1. John and his brothers took turns working on renovating one of their dad's bathrooms. Part of that included removing the old floor and adding a layer of cement before laying tile. So of course I am drying my hair on the same floor as the bathroom and Netta comes up to find me. Well she also managed to find her way into the construction zone. I didn't realize what was going on until John came up and asked about Netta. Then it hit me like a brick and I ran into the bathroom to find her playing in the wet cement! She was caked in it and I can only assume she tried a little since she had a ring of cement around her mouth. Luckily, we were all able to keep our cool and laugh about it and John's brother was able to fix it. Unfortunately, in the mad rush to get her in the tub and try to salvage the floor, we did not get a picture.

2. This second highlight actually does have a picture to go along with it, but I decided not to include it for EZ's sake. We were all out at a fast food restaurant and a bunch of the kids were playing on the play scape. When we were getting ready to leave we realized that EZ was missing. I went walking out into the main part of the restaurant to look for him and all of a sudden he came walking across the restaurant in nothing but his shirt and his socks with his little butt cheeks hanging out. EZ has become very good at going to the potty on his own, but he still insists on stripping to do it and sure enough when I saw him pantless, I went into the women's restroom and found his shoes, pants and underwear all laying on the floor. I guess it's better than him peeing his pants!

3. I got to experience my first Brown family Thanksgiving, which involves a ton of people getting together at the church for an huge dinner followed by games in the gym. Eating Thanksgiving dinner on 6 huge folding tables with 60 other people is not exactly what I am used to, but the food and socializing were both awesome. You can't ask for more than that. Here are some pics of the kids enjoying playing with the family. First Netta rolling the ball with John's cousin Ben. She loved it so much and I thought it was so cute.

EZ's favorite part was his cousin Coleman teaching him how to play the Nintendo DS or whatever it is. Coleman was so patient with him and such a sweetie.

Eventually EZ played on his own. Due to his obsessive nature we will not be getting one of these, probably ever.

4. Finally, we got to take a ride on the Polar Express. There is an old train called the Heber Creeper that does themed rides throughout the year and obviously around Christmas they do the Polar Express. You get to read the book, eat treats and meet Santa. We had a whole train car rented out just for John's family, so even though the kids might have been a little young and EZ wanted nothing to do with Santa, it was still a blast cause we were with practically the whole family.

What The Kids Are Up To

So another month has flown by without me posting. I blame the child in my belly. Anyway, here is what the kids have been up to. EZ has a new found love of computer games. Since he stopped napping, this is a good way for me to keep him occupied while Netta naps, so I can kind of have some quiet time. I am amazed how quickly he has learned to use the computer. He can plug in the wireless mouse, turn on the computer, log on (no password), and open up the internet. All I have to do is type in playhousedisney.com and we are good to go. He is supposed to get off when Netta wakes up but sometimes that doesn't happen right away but luckily Netta is more than happy to just watch him play.

EZ has also been asserting his independence as of late. He is just getting too big for me to force him to do anything, like take a bath. So I have to admit I have caved and actually gotten in the bathtub with him to appease him. In this picture, Netta had just finished her bath while EZ threw a fit the whole time so I told him we could put on our bathing suits and I would get in with him. That did the trick and of course Netta couldn't be left out so she had to get back in. Sometimes I think maybe I don't do enough for my kids and then during times like these I think they are so spoiled.

Now I have been trying to assert some independence for Netta so I relax a bit more. She is getting great about feeding herself and can handle just about any meal. Yogurt has been one of the things we are working on and here is a pic of her trying to feed herself some runny yogurt, before I switched to a more custard-like type. As you can tell it went really well. I tried to do the right thing by giving her the organic Yo Baby stuff, but it is like water, so for self feeding it is back to good old Dora yogurt.

Its a ...

BOY!!!

Today I had the big ultrasound and found out we are having a boy! John and Netta were there and despite the appointment being an hour late, John was able to stay for pretty much the whole thing and Netta behaved surprisingly well. Leading up to this people would ask what I thought I was having and honestly I didn't have any strong impressions. With EZ I had dreams that he was a boy and obviously he was and with Netta the pregnancy was so different that I was sure she was a girl. Now this third pregnancy has been so insanely different that I started to think that maybe the difference between the first two was just the fact that pregnancy gets harder with each go around and had nothing to do with me having a boy and then a girl. So going into the appointment, John was sure it was a boy for some unknown reason and I could only say that so far only girls names had been coming to me so maybe it was a girl. Well John wins and I was pretty surprised, but so excited.